this is 9news now. hello. i'm jc hayward. thanks for being with us. this morning the fbi unveiled its latest effort to file another frustrating cold case that goes back 20 years. and billboards like the ones

we're about to see are going up in at least 15 states. looking for a suspect that officers call the potomac river rapist. the suspect attacked at least eight women in our area between 1991 and 1998. one young woman was killed in woods off canal road near georgetown university. now there is a $25,000 reward and renewed hope that the rapist will be found. >> law enforcement well understand that cold cases can be solved after many years, and that often times these cases just need somebody, somebody courageous to step forward with a critical piece of information that can crack cases open. >> we believe we have a chance right now to bring this matter to closure, to get the person responsible. right now when the people are home for the holidays, something is going to trigger somebody sitting with their family.

somebody might remember something. >> new analysis of old dna evidence has linked all the cases together. the suspect used chilling methods. he ambushed some victims by breaking into their homes and he covered himself in a blanket. he became increasingly violent over the years. we have a link on our website wusa9.com to the fbi's website which includes a map of the attacks and more background information on the potomac river rapist. a pregnant woman is in serious condition after she was stabbed more than a dozen times. her boyfriend is now in police custody. investig strt northeast. this is the sec time officers have been called to that street. on monday, dc police officers shot a man who was firing a handgun and would not put the weapon down. dc police need our help in

on street southeast yesterday afternoon. he's described as being about 4 feet 6-inch tall, weighing about 90 pounds. he was last seen wearing blue pants, a blue sweater with the words dc prep on it. if you see noble watkins, please call police. well, the closing of the war in iraq reached a milestone this morning. american soldiers officially retired the flag. top military advisors were hand or the ceremony. terra reports from the white house. >> reporter: defense secretary arrived in baghdad to provide over the ending of the war in iraq. soldiers wrapped the flag designed for the war and put it inside a sheet. that flag will be brought back to the united states but will

never fly again. the moment marks the official end to the mission. secretary penetta paid tribute to the men and women who served. >> your dedication, your commitment to this mission has been the driving force behind the remarkable progress that we see here in baghdad and across this country. >> reporter: about 4,000 american forces remn inside iraq. they're packing up and ready to handover the remaining two military bases. the nearly nine-year long war cost more than $800 billion. it claimed about 4500 american lives and left more than 30,000 troops wounded. the secretary says that sacrifice was not in vain. veteran groups point out even though the war is ending, for some troops the battles continue. >> don't turn the page on iraq just because they pulled out. and remember that a great thing you can do is hire a vet. >> reporter: unemployment among veterans is r than

the national average. last month president obama took steps to change that. he signed a bill into law that gives businesses a tax credit for hiring veterans. the final u.s. troops are supposed to be out of iraq by december 31st. but it appears that military officials will have to pull out completely ahead of schedule. former prisoner of war jessica lynch wraps up her student teaching today as she prepares to graduate from college tomorrow. lynch was taken prisoner in iraq during an ambush in march of 2003. u.s. special forces rescued her several days later. she joined the army at age 18 to earn money for college and become a teacher, and tomorrow the 28-year-old mom graduates from west virginia university with a degree in education. the u.s. soldier accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to wikileaks will make his first court

appearance tomorrow. former intelligence analyst bradley manning has been in custody since his arrest in june of 2010. the military tribunal is taking place at fort meade maryland. and here is a shocking figure. nearly one and two americans is living in poverty or qualifies as low income. the threshold for a family of four to qualify as low income is $45,000 a year. many are falling be low that line because of layoffs and cut backs. the hardest hit areas in the country are in the south and in the west. there are more tax troubles for council member marion barry. this morning the washington post reports that the irs filed a lien against a home owned by barry. the home is on orange street in southeast. the dc council member reportedly owes $3,200 in unpaid income taxes for the year 2010.

his attorney says barry's estranged wife lives at that home and he does not. right now the former mayor is repaying federal and district government taxes dating back to 1999. more and more cars are protecting us and saving lives in wreshingz. in fact, a -- wrecks. in fact, a record number of suv and cars have gone through crash tests and are on the 2012 top safety picks by the insurance institute for highway safety. surae chinn has more. >> i'm very happy with toyota. i've been driving them for many years. >> reporter: he couldn't be happier. it's one of 115 models that have been awarded the safest cars in protecting people by the insurance institute for highway safety. >> i've been very, very happy. one of the best cars. >> reporter: the institute conducted dozens f crash tests to come up with a top 2012 safety picks. one of the biggest reasons why

so many cars have made the new list is because their roofs are stronger, just like this honda crv. car makers are redesigning them to better withstand roll over crashes. >> that is fantastic. >> reporter: for the first time, best selling toyota camry and honda accord are among the winners. >> vehicles should be designed so the occupant compartment where the people sit stays intact even in serious crashes. the packaging 101, if the box doesn't collapse, then the cargo that's inside is better protected. >> if you get in an accident, you have to think about safety then so you might as well think about it when we're trying the car. >> reporter: every auto maker has at least one vehicle on the list. toyota includes the lexus brand has 15 winners. general motors is next with 14 followed by volkswagon, audi with 13. ford and acura received 12 awards each. the institute conducted front,

side, rear and rollover crashes. >> if you get the number of those safety issues for us. >> reporter: in arlington, surae chinn, 9news now. the real standout was subaru. it's the only auto maker that has a winner in every model that it builds. several large pick up trucks made the grade, but not one small pick up was considered safe enough to make the cut. you can go to our website wusa9.com and see whether your car is on the list. still to come on 9news now at noon, find out what happened when a man tries to drag a woman from a busy street with dozens of people watching. the golden globe nominations are out. details coming up.

a woman has good samaritans to thank after she was attacked yesterday afternoon in northwest washington. the woman says a well-dressed man grabbed her, pulled her by the hair and dragged her into a parking lot at 25th and m streets northwest. as she screamed, several people came to her rescue. not only did they stop the attack, but they held the suspect until police arrived. >> you think that you watch all these shows and you know what to do when it happens, and i wish i did more. all you can do is scream for help. >> i grabbed his hands and i guess i sort of kicked him in the head a little bit to try to

knock him down. and another man grabbed his hand and pulled it behind his back. >> i think they're amazing and how often can you say that someone literally saved your life. >> juan carlos jiminez was arrested and charged with kidnapping. coming up next, howard and the forecast. >> and jc, we have ray little sun and showers on radar. that's why i have the umbrella with me. i'm going to take you to combrak with a look at the -- break with a look at the wind gust. it's been a breezy day. we have gusts at 18 at annapolis and 30 in dc. i'll come back with headline nine thursday and your weekend for cast when we return. [ female announcer ] more people are using wireless devices...

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all that serve at home. >> hello. i'm serving in afghanistan. i would like to say happy holidays to my wife sue,ends. i hope to see you soon. well, the golden globe nominees were announced this morning in hollywood. >> reporter: the silent film the artist was the big hit clinching six golden globe nominations. the french romance tells the

tale of the days of silent film. it made the list for best comedy or musical along with 50-50, bridesmaids, midnight in paris and my week with maryland. money ball, war and the eyes of march. >> is this your personal theory? >> reporter: george clooney had three, he'll have some tough competition. leonardo dicaprio, ryan gos elling, gosseling and brad pitt. they're known as the predictor for the academy awards which announce their oscar nominations next month. this could be a good year for

vieola davis. she is up against merrill streep and tilda swinton. in the tv category it was a good day for boardwalk empire. best actor and best supporting actress. the golden globes will announce their winners on january 15th. >> okay. we shall see. >> a lot of move to see. >> -- movies to see. >> yes. how about a silent movie. >> isn't that something. >> a surprise? >> i don't know about a surprise but a courageous move. let's talk about our weather. no surprises today. we have breezy conditions, mild conditions and a few showers still on live doppler 9000 hd. for the rest of the afternoon, keep the rain gear handy. we're not seeing a lot of showers there, but we'll see a few as temperatures head towards 60 in spots. in fact, the low 60s south of town where we're going to see a little more sunshine. upper 50s to near 60 here in dc and the winds will be out of the

south and southwest 10-20 miles an hour with gusts of 30 at times. by this evening that's when we're going to settle down, lose the showers and temperatures won't drop off very much. they'll drop down into the 40s tonight. but they won't rise much tomorrow. i'll explain in a few moments. first things first, here is the rain and the clouds. you see the radar here, the yellow, that is some heavier showers into west virginia. some of these have snuck into maryland and west virginia closer to home. here is doppler 9000 hd. north of town up towards westminster. this is where we're seeing some white showers going on. you're seeing that coming out of myers burg and hagerstown. you may get a couple of sprinkles right there. and in western maryland and west virginia, we're seeing more of that ahead of the front itself from kaiser.

this is moving east. the whole line is moving. you're going to see the showers in the next 20 minutes, cape and bridge maybe 45 minutes to an hour. you're going to have to watch this for the afternoon. ahead of the front it's been mild. it's 63 at fredericksburg. we're 57. 60 on the bay and still in the 40s in places like cumberland and hagerstown. keep in mind in dc our normal high is 46, 47. we're ten above that right now with the south, southwest winds at 21 gusting to 30. so definitely a breezy afternoon to say the least. and there is say lot of cold air up here. nothing arctic. but this cold air is just indicative of the cool down that is coming as we head towards the weekend. you want to know this is not the place for it. once again we have the southwesterly flow. the rains from texas all the way to new england. the cold air is in northern maine. they have some snow and up towards minnesota. around here that is not going to be a problem for us or it's not going to be a good thing if you're a skier because they have to make the snow. and this is not helping at all

with temperatures in the 50s. snow making won't resume until we get this front passed us and the cold air returns. a few showers this afternoon and tonightorrow. there's another system that heads thisay but that will stay south. today 59. some 60s south. tonight only around 50 but winds tomorrow northwest, not southwest. on saturday ch we head up towart 50-degree mark. but you'll notice there it thur, means it's pet line nine times. one of my favorite visitors is angela robinson from the cocker spaniel rescue. look at her. isn't she precious. >> cockers in general have a great demeanor, a sweet, sweet

girl. >> she is really sweet. and she appears to be some type of mix. we're wondering if there is a little poodle in here. poodles are very intelligent. she's a little on the tall side so we've been classifying her as the cocker spaniel mix. she is house broken. she loves car rides. loves her toys. >> this is one of these dogs that they have here instead of fur. >> no, she's got fur. you're thinking of yorkshire terriers that have hair. >> okay. but she's a sweet girl. >> she is. everybody can see how pretty her head is. >> how do you get a great dog like this? >> it per plexs me. she's a stray and she obviously lived with a family. she has very good house manners. we don't know how they end up on the street. but that's her story. she was found in baltimore as a stray. >> good that you guys are taking care of her and hopefully one of you folks out there will welcome whitney into your house. how can you do that. >> you can go to our voicemail

which is 703-533-2372. or you can go to your website. >> right. go to wusa9.com and go to our pet section. don't go away. we'll return in just a moment.

don't forget to go to jc haywood.com for lots of information every day. and in the studio today, we have students from long field elementary school from maryland and we're so happy to have them.

but right now one-on-one today with my dear friend viv yin polmear who is the president of west end travel. and do you get the feeling that after the holidays you need to get away? >> don't we all? >> yes. >> too many families -- too much family, too many kids running around. you need a break, right? [ laughing ] >> yes. so we're going to talk about two places that we can drive to today. elegant, lux luxurious bed and breakfast. it's not only where judge washington crossed the delaware and had his lookout with his army, so there is lots of history involved. it's a wonderful inn that has flavor, a breakfast that's brought to you in bed. >> like that. >> you can pick your own little balcony. you're overlooking five acres. >> look at the food. >> oh, my god. >> great food. >> magnificent. and a fireplace.

now, the rooms there start at $300. but the one thing is you've got to look at their weekly specials. because you can get it for under $300 and enjoy the luxury and the small shops that are downtown in new hope. walk around. have candle lit dinner. fabulous. >> what's the second place? >> now we're going to go down to white okay, virginia. this place is one of my absolute favorites. white post, virginia. sorry. 90 miles away from washington. and it's in the foot hills of the shenandoahs. it's a blend of modern comfort and luxury. >> and the name again? >> l'auberge provencale. it has the french fabrics ablingd the antiques. and to top it all off, they have a chef who is one of the owners that is magnificent. their rooms go for under $200 and it's a great get away and the place is absolutely beautiful and it's a wonderful treat, even if you want to go

down for dinner. >> all right. >> i'm giving you those two. >> all right. enjoy. hope you have a happy holiday. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> thank you. come back and visit us at 5:00. bye-bye.